Michinoku Pro Wrestling

Michinoku Pro Wrestling (also known as North Eastern Wrestling) is a Lucha libreprofessional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke in 1993. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rather in Morioka, Iwate. Since, the promotion is primarily focused on the Lucha libre style of wrestling, many of their wrestlers don masks and special motifs as they compete in the ring. However, Michinoku Pro has accepted wrestlers from various styles (such as shoot style and strong style) and backgrounds over the years. In 2003, Sasuke left the running of the promotion to Jinsei Shinzaki.

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Michinonoku Pro Wrestling (Michinoku Pro or M-Pro) was founded on October 1, 1992 by The Great Sasuke as a community-based promotion for the greater Tohoku, North Eastern, region of Japan. Their first ever pre-show was held on November 27, 1992 in Takizawa City. Though due to disputes with the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), the promotion was put on the back-burner for the next several months. Gran Hamada joined M-Pro, and their first ever show was held on Match 16, 1993 in Yahaba, Iwate.

The stable Kaientai Deluxe (海援隊Deluxe) formed in 1996. Dick Togo, Men's Teioh, TAKA Michinoku, Shoichi Funaki, Hanzo Nakajima worked as young protagonists looking to make a break in business. This group competed against The Great Sasuke and Super Delfin. After a couple of years, TAKA and the rest of KAIENTAI moved to the US to compete.

In 1997, Michinoku Pro Wrestling entered into a working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation, with M-Pro founder The Great Sasuke wrestling in two matches for the promotion. The WWF would also send talent to Japan, such as The Undertaker, who would wrestle against M-Pro mainstay Jinsei Shinzaki.[1] During this period, the WWF was planning on holding a tournament to crown the first holder of the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. It has been theorised in the wrestling press that although Great Sasuke was pushed to be the winner of the tournament, he had bragged to the Japanese media that he would only defend the title in Japan, and would refuse to drop the title on WWF television.[2] When the WWF heard Sasuke's comments, he was removed from the tournament, fired, and the MPW/WWF working agreement was terminated.[3]. However, speaking on his Something to Wrestle With podcast in July 2017, Bruce Prichard disputed this version of events, suggesting the WWF never entered into any formal agreement with Sasuke, and that the company was only interested in signing TAKA Michinoku.[4] Michinoku Pro Wrestling alumnus TAKA Michinoku would end up winning the title.

By 1998 the promotion had gone on a temporary hiatus after Sasuke suffered a knee injury that required surgery. Delfin took charge of the promotion for the time being, but on January 17, 1999 he announced that he would be withdrawing the promotion and many of the wrestlers and backstage personnel would be joining him. This was in part due to differences in regards to the direction of the promotion. Delfin was joined by Gran Naniwa, Masato Yakushiji, Naohiro Hoshikawa, Masaru Seno, Hayato Kigawa, and referee Yukinori Matsui. Delfin formed Osaka Pro Wrestling. TAKA Michinoku and Dick Togo later returned after their stint in the US and competed from time to time. In 2003, Sasuke ran for public office, and Jinsei Shinzaki took over as the president of the promotion. The 10th anniversary of the promotion was held on November 2, 2003 at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japan.

In July 2004, the promotion underwent a revival as Ultimo Dragon disbanded his then Toryumon X promotion and sent his talent to join the promotion, which was then dubbed Shinsei Michinoku Pro-Wrestling. Bear Fukuda, Ken45°, Murcielago, and Manabu Murakami were the firsts to join the promotion. Then in October, Taro Nohashi, Dynamite Tohoku, and Shu and Kei Sato joined the promotion. Then at the end of that year SUGI, Rasse, Kagetora, and Manabu Murakami made their debuts.

On December 13, 2013 Kenoh left the promotion and vacated the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship due to signing with Pro Wrestling Noah. In 2014, Michinoku Pro reactivated the Okinawa Wrestling Championship which was won by Eisa8.

^Taylor C. Mitchell (Apr 16, 2014). "The Most Incredible Single Night of Wrestling, Ever". Voices of Wrestling. Retrieved June 24, 2016. Until Great Sasuke allegedly told Japanese reporters that he was going to win the WWE Light Heavyweight Championship and refuse to defend it in the USA and threatened to only defend it in Japan. The WWE immediately fired The Great Sasuke and moved on to put their new championship around the waist of the young Taka Michinoku. One would have to speculate that this hurt WWE's new relationship with Michinoku Pro

^Taylor C. Mitchell (Apr 16, 2014). "The Most Incredible Single Night of Wrestling, Ever". Voices of Wrestling. Retrieved June 24, 2016. Until Great Sasuke allegedly told Japanese reporters that he was going to win the WWE Light Heavyweight Championship and refuse to defend it in the USA and threatened to only defend it in Japan. The WWE immediately fired The Great Sasuke and moved on to put their new championship around the waist of the young Taka Michinoku. One would have to speculate that this hurt WWE's new relationship with Michinoku Pro

^Bruce Prichard (July 7, 2017). "Something to Wrestle With Bruce Prichard: Canadian Stampede '97". MLW. Retrieved July 15, 2017. "There was interest in [Sasuke] coming over and doing special events, but Sasuke could not work a full schedule in the United States. And, frankly, we were more interested in TAKA on a full time basis.